Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless

26 Oct 2011

Broke-Ass Halloween Costumes Gone Wrong

Halloween can be painful– and for reasons besides buying bags of mini-candies at the drugstore, eating them all at once while lounging in bed watching Netflix, and subsequently worrying about tummy aches/lack of dental insurance/pants button-popping (haaayyy).  Rather, Halloween can be a financial pain for people on a budget, a.k.a.

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
19 Oct 2011

Why Trying to Be Fabulous Just Makes You Look Like a Loser

Enrique* could often be found leaning against other people’s parked cars, making a pouty face and checking out his own reflection in storefronts. Even though he was a hairstylist, he refused to get his hair cut at the salon he worked at, and instead paid significantly more for a greasy,

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
12 Oct 2011

What I Learned About Dating from the Chinatown YMCA

If you want me to like you, you don’t have to take me out to dinner or buy me things. You don’t have to have a fancy job, or live in a trendy neighborhood. You don’t even have to dress well. Besides finding someone who can feed me, there’s just

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
05 Oct 2011

Why You Probably Shouldn’t Get a Discount Massage in a Foreign Country

In a lot of ways, being broke is about picking and choosing where to spend your money.  Maybe you shop your dad’s closet, but pay $13 at the independent movie theater every week.  Maybe you eat $2 dumplings year round, but blow your wad on cool vacations a couple of

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
28 Sep 2011

How to Convince People That You Are Fashionable, When You Really Look Like a Disaster

As Countess LuAnn’s auto-tuned crooning on Real Housewives of New York taught us, “money can’t buy you class.”  I firmly believe this– look at all of the lavishly rich ladies out there who still look like tacky messes (again, see any Real Housewives for an example).  Less money to spend on

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
21 Sep 2011

How to Deal with Mooches Without Going (Completely) Insane

Deep in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown lies my greatest enemy.  In one room of a six-bedroom apartment, he slumbers atop the mountain of dirty clothes that cover his sheet-less mattress on the floor.  He eats his roommates’ food, never refills the Brita water pitcher, and would rather

Carrie Laven - Pretty Penniless 0
14 Sep 2011

Fall Fashion on a Budget: Dress Like a Cool Schoolgirl

 Here in New York, temperatures have dropped from unbearably hot to only slightly sweltering.  Unexpected rainy days make me yell curses when I accidentally step in puddles that fill my jelly sandals with water.  Obnoxious kids in school uniforms have suddenly appeared on the train that I take to work,

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